Re: GCC: limitation with the command line length

[Jens Schweikhardt <schweikh at schweikhardt dot net>]

On Mon, Jan 05, 2009 at 11:09:26AM +0100, Neatsoul wrote:
# Hello everybody,
# 
# I would like to compile on a windows platform, an application with
# several hundred C/C++ files but the command line is so long that GCC
# doesn't work.

Please understand that GCC *would* work. This is a limitation of
the windows shell.

# So I tried to use the "@" option of GCC in cmd.exe but it doesn't seem
# to work. Gcc return the "@file.c: No such file or directory" error so
# i deduce that the @ option is not recognized.

Right, GCC does not interpret @ the way other programs do.

# I read on the web that cygwin batch doesn't have limitation for the
# length of the command line. I tried to use the cygwin's GCC in a
# cygwin environment and this time the "@" option is enable but i have a
# limitation when a file exceed 4023 Ko.

What unit is a "Ko"?

# All the answer I found on the web wasn't enough clear for me.
# 
# I would like to know if it's possible to use gcc in my case in a
# windows platform without using cygwin ? Is it possible to use the "@"
# option in cmd.exe without cygwin ?

I'm not a windows expert. However the general approach to
dealing with huge amounts of files to compile and link is:

1. Compile each file separately, as with
   gcc [options] -c main.c
   gcc [options] -c file1.c
   gcc [options] -c file2.c
   ...
   gcc [options] -c file1000.c

Now you have the object files main.o file1.o file2.o ... file1000.o

You can either try linking with

  gcc -o executable *.o

in the hope that this is still is within the limits of your windows
shell.

2. If not, create a library from the object files, one by one. Then link
   with that library.

   ar -r libfoobar.a file1.o
   ar -r libfoobar.a file2.o
   ...
   ar -r libfoobar.a file1000.o

   gcc -o executable main.o libfoobar.a

You get the idea?

Regards,

	Jens
-- 
Jens Schweikhardt http://www.schweikhardt.net/
SIGSIG -- signature too long (core dumped)